Opium and the State in Late-Qing Sichuan

This chapter highlights how successful representatives of the central government were in implementing the 1906 campaign in Sichuan. It notes that this was achieved despite the primary role which opium had come to play in Sichuan's economy, polity, and society. The chapter explains that this success was the result of effective leadership and cooperation of central, provincial, and local officials during a period when the Qing state was supposedly in decline. However, it notes that the anti-opium campaign lacked the necessary nationalist flavor. The important patriotic rallying cries were not inspired, as they were in the major cities of Fujian, by images of Commissioner Lin, but by pictures of preying on Sichuan's railroads.